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March 4, 2005

Alaska's Blakely fix

Yesterday I reported here on Tennesse's developing Blakely fix, which adopts an "advisory guideline" approach in the wake of Booker. Providing an interesting contrast, today I received news about Alaska's developing and distinct Blakely fix, which is now in the form of this bill that has already been passed by the Alaska legislature and is awaiting transmittal to Alaska's governor for signature.

As detailed in the bill, the Alaska legislature is mostly opting to Blakely-ize its sentencing scheme. Here's how the bill was described in an e-mail to me:

The provisions in the bill that directly address Blakely are contained in sections 1 (legislative intent) and 21 of the bill, which sets forth how a defendant receives notice of proposed aggravating factors and requires that they be proved to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. In addition, section 2 provides that aggravating factors need not be specificied in an indictment. The bill also changes from a system of specific presumptive terms to presumptive ranges.

A bit more background on this work by the Alaska legislature can be found in the middle of this this recent AP article.